Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle.
Related Background Art
Conventionally, a vehicle in which a driver sits on a driver seat and performs a driving operation is known, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2012-111305. Such a vehicle includes a driver seat on which a driver sits, and the driver seat has a backrest section extending upward from the rear of a seat section directed in a horizontal direction. The driver sits on the driver seat, rests the driver's waist and back against the backrest section, stretches legs in a forward direction from the driver seat to take the seat, and performs a driving operation. That is, the driver drives the vehicle in a posture of putting feet ahead of the waist and knees and leaning the back against the backrest section.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication Nos. 2007-112230, 09-315177, 08-221146, 08-113063, and 2001-260057 are examples of the related art.
Vehicles in which a driving operation is performed in a good healthy driving posture are desirably developed. For example, in the above-mentioned vehicle, the driver drives in a posture of putting the feet ahead of the waist and the knees and leaning the back against the backrest section. In this case, retroversion moment occurs in the pelvis by influences of hamstring muscles of the legs stretching forward, and the driver's back tends to stoop due to retroversion of the pelvis. In addition, a main point of the upper body portion affected by gravity (for instance, a lumbar vertebra) and a main point of a seat surface reaction (for instance, a portion around a hipbone) are shifted in forward and rearward directions in a side view, thereby allowing the retroversion moment to occur in the pelvis. The driver's back tends to be in a stooped posture due to the retroversion of the pelvis. For this reason, it is difficult to mention this posture as a good healthy driving posture. In the driving posture, the driving operation is performed in a state in which muscular strength used in everyday life is not used very much, and as such, the balance of muscular strength of rotation of the spinal cord may be mismatched due to lack of utilization of the muscular strength.
Accordingly, in the field of the present technique, it is desired to develop a healthy vehicle achieved by enabling a driving operation using muscular strength to be performed in a good driving posture.
As a result of repeated research regarding a driving posture while in a vehicle, the present inventors of the present application have found a vehicle in which a driving posture becomes a good healthy driving posture by changing the driving posture to a posture similar to a horseback riding posture as much as possible and an acceleration and deceleration operation of the vehicle is able to be performed using body muscular strength.
Accordingly, according to an aspect of the present invention, a vehicle includes a seating section provided in a main body and configured such that an occupant is able to take a seat by straddling the same, foot placement sections located beneath the seating section to be respectively provided at left and right positions with the seating section interposed therebetween, feet of the seated occupant being placed on the foot placement sections, and a grip section located in front of the seating section and disposed above the seating section, the grip section being gripped with a hand of the occupant so as to be operated, the grip section being configured to be tilted in a forward and rearward direction relative to the main body, an acceleration operation being performed by tilting the grip section in the forward direction, a deceleration operation being performed by tilting the grip section in the rearward direction.
The vehicle includes the foot placement sections located beneath the seating section to be provided at the left and right positions with the seating section interposed therebetween. Thereby, the occupant has a posture in which the head, the waist, and the feet of the occupant are positioned in a nearly straight line in a vertical direction when the occupant sits on the seating section and places the feet on the foot placement sections. For this reason, retroversion of the pelvis of the occupant due to seating is suppressed and a seating posture is suppressed from being a stooped posture. Therefore, a good healthy driving posture can be assumed.
In addition, the acceleration operation is performed by tilting the grip section in the forward direction and the deceleration operation is performed by tilting the grip section in the rearward direction. Thereby, in order to perform the acceleration and deceleration operation, a driving posture in which the head, the waist, the feet of the driver D are positioned in a nearly straight line is changed to a posture in which the grip section is tilted in the forward or rearward direction, and the posture itself coincides with a vector direction of driving force or braking force from a road surface. Therefore, the acceleration and deceleration operation may be performed without depending on a handle and a backrest of a seat and body muscular strength can be utilized through the acceleration and deceleration operation, so that a healthy driving operation can be performed.
In addition, the vehicle according to the aspect of the present invention may further include a traveling state detection section that detects a traveling state, an operation position detection section that detects an operation position of the grip section, an operation state detection section that detects an operation state of the grip section, and a driving/braking control section that determines a driving/braking operation, based on the traveling state detected by the traveling state detection section, the operation position detected by the operation position detection section, and the operation state detected by the operation state detection section, so as to perform driving/braking control.
In this case, the driving/braking operation is determined, based on the traveling state detected by the traveling state detection section, the operation position detected by the operation position detection section, and the operation state detected by the operation state detection section, so as to perform driving/braking control. Thereby, by adding the traveling state in addition to the operation position and operation state of the griper, three different traveling/braking operations of the vehicle, namely, forward traveling, backward traveling, and braking of the vehicle can be performed through two different operations of the grip section, namely, a forward tilt operation and a rearward tilt operation of the grip section.
In addition, in the vehicle according to the aspect of the present invention, the traveling state detection section may detect a stopped state, a forward traveling state, and a backward traveling state, as the traveling state, the operation position detection section may detect whether or not the operation position of the grip section is a reference position, and the operation state detection section may detect whether the grip section is in a forward tilt operation state or in a rearward tilt operation state, as the operation state of the grip section.
In addition, the vehicle according to the aspect of the present invention may further include a pair of left and right wheels and the foot placement sections may be mounted to lower arms that connect the main body to the wheels.
In this case, since the foot placement sections are mounted to the lower arms, the main body may be easily inclined by keeping or kicking the feet placed on the foot placement sections and a turning operation can be performed using the leg muscles used in everyday life. For this reason, it is possible to realize health promotion by stimulating the muscles through the turning operation.
According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a healthy vehicle achieved by enabling a driving operation using muscular strength to be performed in a good driving posture.